


Let's rewrite HIStory

by QueenyClairey



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Professors, Betting, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, History teachers, M/M, Professor Alec Lightwood, Professor Magnus Bane, sharing an office
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 19:31:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19091620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenyClairey/pseuds/QueenyClairey
Summary: Magnus and Alec are Professors of History at Alicante University.Unfortunately, they have fought from the very first moment of their acquaintance and they cannot seem to stop.Everyone's taking bets on when they are finally going to realise they like each other.When Magnus' office is out of bounds, they end up having to share and....well let's see if they can rewrite their HIStory!





	Let's rewrite HIStory

**Author's Note:**

> Saw a tweet asking for more Professor Magnus AU's. I liked it and thought ah...I want them both to be professors! And this was born!
> 
> Don't worry I haven't forgotten the rest of the AU's - excited to keep updating them all! But this popped into my head so I had to start it!
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> As always, Kudos and Comments are like delicious English chocolate!! Yum!
> 
> PS - I'm English...that's how we spell!

To say that Professor Alexander Lightwood didn’t like Professor Magnus Bane was an understatement. For they spent almost all of their time together, arguing. 

It had begun as teasing between the pair when Magnus had first taken residence in the classroom next to Alec’s, after his promotion to full-time professor; Alec pointing out an inaccuracy on one of Magnus’ PowerPoints that had led to them lecturing one another about clause 61 of The Magna Carta and its importance in the history of law. But had become more heated when they had disagreed over The Battle of Stalingrad and whether Hitler should have attacked or not. 

This discussion had, unfortunately, taken place in front of Alexander’s Freshman class and had been videoed and then shared so many times, with so many hundreds of comments about their electric attraction to one another, that neither Professor had been able to live it down for months afterwards. They were a YouTube and Twitter sensation overnight, and their classes had taken it upon themselves to sneakily find ways of making them disagree so they could upload more content for the thirsty ‘Malec’ fans.

The main culprits were Clary Fray and her gang of rapscallions: boyfriend, Jace Wayland (who had coined the term Malec); best friends, Maia Roberts and Simon Lewis. Not to mention Alec’s own brother, Max Lightwood who had just joined the freshman class and was immediately sucked into the teasing. 

Every day, the teens would conspire to start an argument between the pair and then secretly film it for their hungry followers. It was becoming a game, with bets flying all over campus about when the two professors would finally realise that they were spending every second together, intensely flirting, as opposed to the historical disagreements they believed they were having. 

One day Jace had suggested that Magnus had disagreed with Alec about the exact date of the Fall of Rome: insisting it was the 4th September, while Alexander had told his class it was the next day. 

This argument was so epic, and lasted so long, it was nicknamed ‘The Fall of the Lightwood-Banes’; as they argued about it to such an extent, that a Wikipedia battle ensued with the pair constantly altering the date until they were both unceremoniously kicked off the site by the admin. 

Another day, Clary told Alec that Magnus believed his interpretation of The Battle of Waterloo was inaccurate. Professor Lightwood interrupting Professor Bane’s sophomore class to explode at him about the 50,000 Prussians who held more significance in the battle than the 25,000 men of Wellington’s army, was a sight to behold and prompted a flurry of memes where Alec was holding various historical objects and purporting that they were more significant than the Brits! 

This ‘discussion’, which had lasted for almost the entire period of the class, had prompted the students to make a tally chart about who stared at who for the longest, who touched their hair or face the most while speaking, who took the first step when they inevitably ended up eye to eye and who reached out until they were almost touching.

Currently the score was tied, the statistics collected, proving that both men were responsible for the whole student body betting on when it would finally happen between them.

It became the most incredible standoff that had ever taken place at the university (and it was over 600 years old). The pair couldn’t even sit at the same dining table without disagreeing over who had invented the first chair - The Ancient Egyptians, or the Chinese Xia dynasty of the 21st century BC (Magnus remained certain that **he** was correct.)

They had captivated the whole campus, including the administration who had been keeping an eye on the situation and even dropped a few bets of their own. 

It all came to a head the day that Luke Garroway (the head of the university) arrived in Magnus’ office, clutching a stack of paperwork and wearing a serious frown.

“Magnus?” he called out, surprised to find the office seemingly empty. “I was told you were in here, I have some paperwork for you…”

There was a sudden bang, and then Magnus appeared from under his desk, holding a small box.

“Oh hello, Luke, didn’t hear you come in, was too busy trying to...” he said, pausing as if he had suddenly realised who he was speaking to, “Ummm...just pick up the pens that rolled off my desk.” he finished, trying to conceal the box behind his back, an innocent expression on his face, betrayed by the look of panic in his dark eyes.

“What’s in the box, Magnus?” Luke asked sternly, well aware that Magnus had a reputation for owning a small menagerie at home and wondering if one of his lizards, or god forbid, another snake, had made its way to the office today.

“Just ummm…” Magnus said, scrabbling around for an excuse. 

“Don’t just ummm me Professor Bane!” Luke said seriously, staring him down, eyes flashing. “Tell me what you’ve got there!”

“Okay, fine. There was noise under my desk and I caught this little guy munching on a cereal bar I must have dropped a while ago,” Magnus admitted, opening the box to reveal a small, well fed mouse. 

“Urgh!” Luke said, leaning in to look and then taking a step away. “Magnus! You left food in your office? What is the number one, cardinal rule of working here at the University?”

“Ummm… don’t suggest to Professor Lightwood that the Charge of the Light Brigade began because they went after the wrong guns!” He laughed hoping to get Luke to drop the serious act and to laugh along with him. But the Dean of the University stayed silent, expression stony. 

Magnus gulped, adam’s apple bobbing up and down fearfully, “Okay. Don’t keep food in my office and if I have food, clear it out every day to make sure we don’t have any incidents like...well like the one you have just walked in on?” 

“Exactly, Professor Bane,” Luke said, allowing his voice to lose it’s more serious tones, “Magnus,” he said, motioning to the room, “You’ve got to look after this ancient building, if we attract all kinds of rodents, parts of it will be dropping off left, right and centre.”

“Well, actually…” Magnus began, about to argue the inaccuracies of Luke’s point.

“Don’t you start with me Professor, save those disagreements for flirting with Professor Lightwood!” Luke cut in, a twinkle in his eyes now. 

“Flirting?” Magnus said, voice outraged, eyes widened, “What we do is not flirting! We are having serious historical discussions. Ones which further the education of our students and ensure that they can write extensive essays often using the historical inaccuracies, mostly suggested by Professor Lightwood, to support and refute their theories. That is not flirting!”

“Whatever you say, Magnus,” Luke sighed tiredly. “Look, I was literally just coming in here to give you these overdue applications for next years programme, I didn’t intend to get involved in a rodent infestation. But now I am, it’s clear that your office needs a serious fumigation. So you will have to move out while that happens.”

“Oh no, no, no, I’m sure little Morris here is the only mouse,” Magnus insisted, trying out his puppy eyes on Luke as he motioned to the now closed box in his hand. 

 

“You named the mouse, Morris?” Luke asked in surprise.

“Of course, every creature deserves a true name, make sure people respect the fact that they are alive and matter.” Magnus said, smiling up at his boss, who was actually one of the nicest men in the whole university and who had recommended Magnus to the board long before he had been given his job.

“Well, Magnus, true name or not, it needs to go. You’ll have to give it to housekeeping and pest control will have to be called in.”

“I could, I could... bring the Chairman to work,” Magnus spluttered out, catching Luke’s arm and trying out his best smile, “He’s a great mouser and he’d have this room rodent free really quickly!”

Luke rolled his eyes, “No chance Magnus, not after the last time you brought one of your pets here, I thought half the Junior class were going to lose their lunch when that snake of yours dangled himself around your neck during the staff-student informal.” He shuddered as he remembered the incident with clarity. 

“Ah only a few of them ran away screaming,” Magnus recalled, silently running through his favourite memories of the incident in his head. Peoples screams were part of it, sure, but the best part, well that had been Alexander reaching out to stroke Gertie softly with his index finger and cooing at her. Magnus could recall the light in his gorgeous hazel eyes as he had gently petted her and the muted smile on his rosy lips. 

It was cemented in his brain. So too, was the discussion with the board afterwards about not bringing his own pets in, even to illustrate the true history of Cleopatra and the asp! (And it had been a little bit to piss off Alec too if he was honest, after Magnus had lost their latest debate about whether the events of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom could truly happen. What? They were film buffs who fought about every frame as well as history nuts!).

“Yes Magnus, a few students did run away screaming, and the school counselling service was booked solid for a month after it too!”

“Ah...yes..” Magnus said in a small voice.

“It’s okay Magnus, we all make mistakes, but this time I think you’re going to have to just follow my solution and not try to find your own well-meaning one. It’ll be a few days, a week tops before you can move back in, and the sooner we settle you elsewhere the better.” Luke said, giving him a final grin, before passing over the papers and heading out. “Let me know where you’re moving to, okay?”

Magnus nodded in the affirmative, mind flicking through his list of contacts at the university. Who would he be able to share an office with? Who had space for little old him?

\------  
He tried Ragnor Fell first. They were old friends from before they had entered the hallowed world of academia, before they had abandoned all hope of forming a post-punkish-fusion band with the gravelly voiced Brit on drums and Magnus on guitar (which he had been very bad at!)

Entering his cluttered office in the English department, it was almost immediately apparent that this was not going to be his new home.

Piles of papers littered the room, stretched over every surface, weighted down by tomes of great literature. Pens were overflowing from cups on the desk and there was a stack of journals so high they looked ready to cause an avalanche near to Ragnor’s favourite cosy armchair. 

“Ah, Magnus my old boy,” Ragnor said as Magnus carefully stepped in, making his way gingerly towards the stack of books that hid his friend’s face. “What can I do you for? Come to moan about young Lightwood disagreeing about the uses for buffalo hooves in the American West? Or perhaps his inability to accept that Custer caused the defeat at Little Bighorn?”

“No, no, none of that,” Magnus scoffed, face flushing as he remembered that he and Alec had actually had that disagreement...and recently. “Actually, I’m looking to rent some office space. There has been a small...nay...tiny problem in my own, and Luke insists that I move out for a little while until it’s sorted.” Magnus said, waving his hand around to indicate that it was truly a very very small problem and that he had absolutely no part in it at all.

“What did you do Magnus?” Ragnor asked him, his head popping up above the pile of books to grin at him. 

“Ah...well...I may have left some food in my office and….” he trailed off as he spotted the pen that Ragnor was holding loosely in his hand, purple ink smeared on his fingers. “Is that mine?”

“Well...you didn’t take it back with you the last time you visited...so no, it’s mine now!” Ragnor chuckled, fingers gripping the pen tighter as though Magnus was going to try and steal it away.

“Consider it payment for you letting me crash here for a while?” Magnus asked, voice pleading just a little.

“No can do, you’ve seen the state of the place and anyway, you know from experience...we cannot share an office! We tried that once, old friend and we nearly came to blows!”

“I know...I know…” Magnus admitted, thinking back to their time at University when they had shared a tiny slip of a room as research students, and, how between them it had become a chaotic mess of paper and cups and ink and general mess, over the space of a very short time. “I just...well...you were the first person I thought of and I wanted to give you first refusal at sharing with your best friend!”

“Best friend you may be, my dear, but roommate you will not be!” Ragnor confirmed firmly, giving him a small grin.

“Okay, I’ll check with Catarina then,” Magnus said, smiling at his friend, “You can keep the pen, my dear cabbage!”

“Not with the nicknames again!” Ragnor roared as Magnus made a quick exit, a ball of paper just grazing his shoulder before he could get the door closed.

He laughed happily as he made his way towards the Science department where Catarina was located somewhere in the maze of labs.

\----

He knew immediately that this was not a workable solution either. 

Catarina was in her office when he arrived, and at first was very pleased to see him. But when he had explained his predicament she had adamantly refused as she was about to take on her own intern and needed the space for her. 

It was a big disappointment to Magnus. Catarina was a no nonsense scientist and was the perfect folly to his own tendency to be dramatic about things. (Yes he could admit he was a little dramatic now and again...okay...a lot!)

“I’m sorry Magnus,” she said, actually looking sorry as she stared at him with her deep, brown eyes, full of sympathy, “Luke is right though and you know it. The wood is so delicate in some of these rooms, that we have to take great care. Our lab mice are locked up so tight for fear of them escaping and causing damage.”

“I know, I’m just sad we don’t get to room together,” he grumbled, before smiling as he caught sight of the picture of him, her and Madzie on their last trip to the fair nearby, “That picture came out great!” he smiled, eyes lighting up at the sight of his goddaughters enormous smile. 

“Yeah, Alec did a great job of editing out the ice cream, right?” Catarina asked as he continued to look at it.

“Alexander did it?” he asked, voice interested as it always was when Alec’s name was mentioned. “I didn’t know he was into photography?”

“Well, I was showing him a few shots and he spotted that one and said he could take away the ice cream drops on your shirt and the bits around Madzie’s mouth if I wanted. At first, I thought I’d keep it au natural, but then I thought I’d like to see what he could do and I really liked the result...so…” she explained, standing up from her desk and cracking her back as she stepped up next to him to gaze at her daughter’s toothy grin. “I think it’s beautful!”

“It is! My two favourite girls, happy together,” Magnus smiled, dropping an arm around Cat and squeezing him against his side. “He did a good job...as I recall, my shirt was _quite_ messy!”

“I think he was very motivated to do a good job,” Cat said, smile in her voice. 

“What does that mean, Catarina? Do you mean he has the original and he’s going to use it to somehow embarrass me?” Magnus asked, voice askance.

“No...well maybe he does, I did send it by email...I just meant, he wanted to make sure **we all** liked it and that **we all** looked good. You haven’t been here for ages so I can finally tell him that you approve!” Cat grinned. 

“Okay, enough, Cat. I know what you’re implying and you know it’s not like that! The man hates me enough to start a battle over which of the US states was the first one to have an elected sheriff, when we all know it was Ohio! The man is a menace, Cat!” Magnus exclaimed, stalking over to her desk and setting her Newton’s Cradle rocking, feel his tension lift as he watched the conservation of momentum.

“No, _you_ know if was Ohio, Magnus...us mere mortals don’t have room to store that information in our heads! Anyway, I wasn’t implying anything...except that perhaps you haven’t been to see me often enough, recently?”

“Of course, I’m sorry Cat...I didn’t mean to neglect you at work...I’ve just been awfully busy...It’s hard to teach all four years with the insane amount of work they produce and now I’m getting kicked out of my space...I’m sorry..I will endeavour to do better, starting with brunch on Sunday? I’ll even watch madzie the rest of the day and you can go get your hair done if you’d like?”

“I would love to have brunch with you darling, but then how about we all go to the salon together, you know Madzie loves it too!”

“Okay, my dear, we can get matching mani-pedis...at least as long as she’s not still into neon orange?”

“No,” Cat laughed, “Not anymore, she’s all about blue at the moment.”

“Oh well, blue I can cope with!” he said, swinging his way to the door and heading down the corridor, Cat’s voice shouting, ‘turquoise blue, Mags.” following him as he left.

\-----

Magnus ended up back in front of his own office an hour later. He had begged, cajoled and flirted with half the campus staff, and yet no-one had space for him in their office. 

Raphael had slammed the door in his face before he could get a word out; Maryse had listened for a little while and then explained that she had a foreign exchange student from China due and she just couldn’t make the room; Elias had sneezed and explained that he was highly allergic to cats and couldn’t possibly have Magnus share with him; and Luke had just laughed when he’s turned up at the Dean’s door, with his best sad face.

“No luck?” he asked him, frowning.

“No one wants me, Luke! I am a disaster!”

“Oh someone will...what about Camille?” he’d asked with a grin.

“That devil? No way! She can shimmy on back to the Languages department, she terrifies me, no way I’d survive a day with her!” he had shuddered.

“But I hear she has a thing for you Magnus! I’m sure she’d be willing!”

But Magnus had just shuddered one more time at the thought and then made his way dejectedly back to his own room.

Packing up the bare essentials (over 50 books, his favourite journals, laptop, pen collection and notebooks) he stacked the boxes outside his door.

“Leaving at last are you Magnus?” Came a voice he knew as well as his own.

Alexander Lightwood was casually leaning against his door jam, suit jacket rolled up to show off his muscled forearms, dark hair falling in his face messily. He was fingering a journal that was poking out of the top of a box, with interest. 

“I am not!” Magnus hissed out, reaching out to knock Alec’s fingers away from his things.

 

“Tetchy aren’t you?” Alec asked, smoothly, continuing to stare between Magnus and his belongings, intrigued. “So, what _is_ going on then?”

“There was a bloody mouse, if you must know, and I have to share an office for a while so I can have mine fumigated. It’s a freaking disaster!”

Alec always seemed to bring out Magnus’ worst side. Even from the very first time, when Alec had pointed out the error he had made about The Magna Carta, he had been unable to relax fully around him. His body was always taut like a bow string waiting to uncoil, and his stomach always filled with burning liquid when they were near.

“Anyway, as you’re here, you can help me move these!” he huffed out, lifting his eyes to meet Alec’s surprised ones.

“Where are you moving to?” he asked, sounding a little anxious, “Not out of the department, I mean that’s silly you must be moving out of the department, we **are** the department after all, and there aren’t any spare offices around here...so where are you going?”

Before Magnus could reply, a cultured French voice piped up, “He’s coming with me!”

They both turned to see Camille stood in the hallway, long legs encased in tight leather pants, a short camisole showing the barest hint of tanned midriff. Her long, dark locks cascaded over her shoulders and her mouth bore a hint of a smirk. 

“I heard you were looking for office space, Magnus darling, I’m happy to offer the other half of mine...although it might be a tight squeeze, though I’m sure you won’t mind that?” she asked, winking at him as her lips quirked into an almost smile and her eyes hungrily raked over him. 

Alec glanced between them and must have seen something desperate in Magnus’ expression.

“No need, Camille,” he said, turning to her with a fake smile, “Magnus is all set, I forgot that he’s already asked to share my office, after all the history department needs to stick together...lots of important assignments coming up etc...would be difficult for Magnus to participate fully if he’s all the way over in languages, wouldn’t it.” 

Magnus listened in shock as the normally eloquent man in front of him, rambled like a first year, nervous their answer was wrong. His thoughts were interrupted as Alec turned his pleading eyes on Magnus, begging him to agree with him. 

“Yes, ummm, Alexander here already offered Camille, thank you for the kind thought though, I do appreciate it,” he said, dismissing her by turning to pick up a box, then turning back to pass it into Alec’s outstretched arms. 

They both watched as Camille flounced away in her 5 inch heels, tossing her hair over her shoulder. 

“Ummm..thanks for that, I guess!” Magnus said, looking up at Alec (who yes, was slightly taller than him.)

“Ummm...yeah,” Alec agreed, looking away and then hefting the box into his arms and moving to his own open office door. 

They transferred Magnus’ boxes in silence and when it was finished, they stared at Alec’s office and the small mountain of things he had brought with him. 

“I’ll...erm...I’ll clear you some space,” Alec said, sounding a little nervous. 

“Thanks…I’m just going to tell Luke where I moved to...he’ll need to know for redirecting mail etc. I…”

He turned away to leave the office and then swiftly turned back to find Alec staring after him, “I meant to say...thank you Alexander. It’s appreciated. I mean… you’re definitely the lesser of two evils...a day with Camille and I might have needed to see the onsite counsellor!”

“Oh,” Alec said, staring back at him, seeming to have regained some of his composure, “Well,” he said, voice deepening into his Professor tone, “Like I said to her, we need to be nearby. We both have to okay the courses and of course, you like to check everything I do for errors, which would be hard if you were so far away. It makes sense.”

Then he turned, in obvious dismissal, reaching out to clear some shelf space. 

Magnus stared at his back for a long minute, thoughts whirring, before he snapped himself out of it and headed for Luke’s office.


End file.
